DAVE: State of Mind

My wife, Sandy, hypnotizes me. With her beauty, but also with hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy is pretty cool stuff. If you’re thinking that she swings a pocket watch in front of my drooping eyes—you’ve got it all wrong. It’s a bit more sophisticated than that. And if you think it’s just a tool to get me to divulge all sorts of tightly held spousal secrets like:

            How much am I spending on performance parts for my car?

            Did I finish off the yummy organic chocolate hidden in the fridge?

            Did I ignore the cat throw-up rather than clean it up?

You’d be wrong again. Sandy practices “Ericksonian Hypnosis,” where the therapist uses metaphors to give suggestions and ideas to your unconscious mind. She begins our sessions with some relaxation exercises and then she talks me through some guided visualizations. She has a great voice and it puts me in a place where we can go beyond my conscious mind, where we can work on eliminating resistance to change.

Some people find hypnotherapy helpful in eliminating harmful behaviors and habits. I like to use hypnotherapy for problems that come up in my everyday life (if you’re in PR, marketing or middle management feel free to substitute the word ‘problems’ with ‘challenges’).

Once I’m in this relaxed state, beyond my conscious mind, we work on changing my thinking. Which I’m naturally resistant to. I can be a bit rigid. And somewhat obsessive. And I’ve found this type of therapy to be effective as well as super relaxing.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m getting very, very sleepy…